Duchy of Upper Moravia
Duchy of Upper Moravia The Duchy of Upper Moravia was a medieval sovereign state under the rule of the House of Oppenburg-Babenforth, who held the title Dukes of Upper Moravia as well as Lower Moravia periodically throughout the 14th and 15th centuries. During the height of the War of Slovak Succession, the Duchy of Upper Moravia at one point controlled all the territory between the Neva River and the Adriatic until a combination of the Brabantian Plague and the Credit Default Crisis of 1562 generated the conditions which led to the collapse of Upper and Lower Moravia not a decade later. Etymology Moravia is believed by modern etymologists to descend from the Uralic participle "Mor" (falling) and Avia (birds), hence the leading interpretation of the name in academia being "land of the dead birds". Subsequent research by the noted paleontologist Dr. Gerhard Dodermeister of the geological conditions which were present during the late Pleistocene has shown an excessive amount of avian skeletal remains within the topographical formations of modern day Moravia. Dr. Dodermeister initially theorized that this amassment of skeletal remains was the result of mass ritual sacrifices by the early neolithic peoples of the region, though this theory has been abandoned due to the sheer number of remains, which would have been incalculably impossible for early neolithic farmers to accomplish given the weaponry of the time. A recent 2011 University of Luxembourg study has shown that Moravia was volcanically active during the middle to late pleistocene and it has been hence accepted that the presence of bird skeletons is the result of these Paleolithic volcanic emissions dumping noxious gasses into the lower atmosphere. Landgrave of Moravia The Landgraviate of Moravia was a predecessor state to the Duchy of Upper Moravia. Moravia was raised from a directly administered fiefdom of the Bohemian crown to a Landgraviate in 1206 by Otto IV, Holy Roman Emperor. This was done as such in order to reward a member of the minor gentry, Mattias Terzič, for heroism at the Siege of Belgrade. Terzič was given power over what before was a relatively underdeveloped part of the Holy Roman Empire, but decades of fiscal austerity combined with an efficient trade regime propelled the Landgraviate of Moravia into the upper ranks of the Imperial Diet. As a result of the Second Lateran Council in 1309, the Landgraviate of Moravia was dissolved per what the Pope at the time, Paul John II, described as "hostile actions of the utmost disrespect against the Holy Church, his vicar on earth, and the hosts of peace, certainly most unwelcome before the eyes of God, and surely not among the peoples of Christendom". What the Pope was referring to was the actions taken by the Landgrave of Moravia, Paulus Zhalno Terzič, against the lesser fiefdoms around his own. Taking advantage of the fact that the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VII was occupied with confronting invasions by the Kingdom of Croatia on the southeastern end of the Empire, Moravia crossed the Danube on 5 June, 1292, sweeping into what is today Austria and Venice. From 1292 till 1311, Moravia had maintained an occupation of the southern bank of the Danube, and in explicit violation of the Treaty of East Francia not 14 years earlier, took control of the capital of the Kingdom of Bohemia, Prague. Under a coalition led by the Holy See per the Emperor's absence, Moravia was wrested from Terzič control and handed to a loyalist family of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, which had taken control of the Holy Roman Emperorship five years prior to the Second Lateran Council. The House of Oppenburg-Babenforth were raised to Dukes of Upper Moravia, with lower Moravia being turned over to ecclesiastical control and the Bishop of Prague. Early to Late 1300's On Christmas Day, 1313, Johann Friedrich Albrecht von Oppenburg-Babenforth was invested as the Duke of Lower Moravia by the Bishop Gerhard of Münster in Aachen. His initial reluctance to accept the Duchy due to his feudal duties in his Westphalian lands, where he ruled as Prince-Elector of Westphalia, was eventually mitigated by the Holy Roman Emperor Louis IV's ascendancy to the throne after Johann's protector, the previous Emperor Henry VII, succame to a rather brutal bout of Ligurian Measles which he had contracted during the Siege of Zagreb in 1312. In spite of the past 17 years of near constant warfare, the fiscal capacity of the Moravian ducal estate remained relatively intact, resultant of the austerity that the Chief Exchequer of the Moravian Treasury, Janos Brazić Varvilov, had marshaled throughout most of the war. Given the extensive damage to infrastructure wrought upon the southern bank of the Danube however, trade had all but ground to a stop by the winter of 1306 throughout most of Southern Europe. Johann was primary concerned with this pitfall and engaged the Apostolic Bank of Hungary, which in fact was a subsidiary of the network of writ exchanges and credit deeds guaranteed by the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, for a loan of 1,400 marks. This decision would result centuries later in the Credit Default Crisis of 1562. With the financing from his old and new estates and with his new loan, he completed an ambitious works project across Moravia which ended in 1323. A total of 14 bridges, 856 leagues of new pathways and road, 14 dams, 10 dikes, three castles, two abbeys, nine paper and flour mills, eight canals were built as well as the University of Prossnitz being established contemporaneous to this massive building project. This sudden and rapid development and building activity spurred not only the local economies within Moravia but outside as well. With the Concordant of Ravenna in 1320, all barriers to trade along the Danube, such as tariffs and excise taxes on luxury items were standardized under a single customs regime. An economic boom began in Southern Europe and as a result, the previous 17 years of warfare had been substantially repaired enough to allow some of the finest artistic achievements of that period to come from the Duchy of Upper Moravia. Extensive exterior renovations have been done upon the Moravesque style Churches built up and down the Moravian countryside, though nonetheless the interiors are well preserved due to the Augustinian monks' insistence that worship be held in darkness, preventing any damage from candle or torch to the artistic masterpieces held inside. Early 1400's - Early 1500's Due to a series of successive